Net worth for the top 1% starts at around $10MM while it's around $1MM for the top 10%. Plenty of them are self-made, I think most millionaires in the...
:100: I get it where you're coming from. I'll add though, and maybe this is me just playing devil's advocate, but I'll add that some problems in life ...
Personally I think the question of finding meaning or value in the universe is largely a personal/emotional one. Atheists are certainly capable of liv...
Cool, so violent people must love Caracas, Venezuela or Detroit because they can be around other violent people who are like them. Maybe all the viole...
He's not, Banno is just talking crap. One of the main things that Nietzsche talks about, and that he's in agreement with many Christians about, is tha...
Sure, we can ask “why are people in group X more violent than people not in group X?” But we probably wouldn't say "people who are violent just so hap...
Ultimately, I'm a believer in free will so I believe that regardless of how horrid a society may be the individual still has a choice to whether he pu...
I'd be interested in learning more about government bonds. I don't own any. What's their importance for the macro picture? What should newer investors...
Yeah, the definition is going to be the contentious point in these kinds of discussions. I would ask these political theorists to define what they mea...
I remember reading a study done that concluded that imperialism was extremely expensive from the host country's point of view and the policy of imperi...
I understand that legal standards existed but whether the nations signed to them or not, they were not followed in the Pacific theater. I was just won...
Yeah, people who get into it for the money are the first ones to leave on the dip. In my experience they buy high and sell low. I remember in March wh...
I don't really care about the agreements. I'm talking about the actual treatment of POWs. The "standards of the time" was the actual treatment, not wh...
The way that POWs were treated on both sides of that conflict would be completely inexcusable in 2020/according to modern conventions. There was just ...
Just curious, would you include FDR in this list? The war in the Pacific was absolutely brutal and the soldiers and high command for all intents and p...
Hey, congrats on your gains. Sentiment has been very bullish lately, so hopefully you got in at a good time. Personally, I've been "in" since late 201...
I do find the Inquisitor's quote to be true, and I also want to mention that I love Dostoyevsky as a writer. It's been years since I read that book bu...
I'm not doing the black and white thinking - I was saying that both a) Putin is a skilled leader who has successfully advanced Russian interests in ma...
Putin has also rolled back liberalization and Democratic reforms, and he could very well be the richest man in the world all on a $133,000/year salary...
Aren't prisons in the US required to compensate prisoners for their labor? Obviously the wages are very low and from what I understand the small wages...
Prison reform is an interesting topic. I think a lot of people can agree that we'd like to see drug offenders not end up in prison, and ideally if we ...
Of course you're right, just because you agree with a fascist about a given policy point doesn't make you a fascist. Fascism thrives in crisis; strong...
Gotcha - so I think the reason my point here isn't too compelling to you is because you're more talking about the power/powerless distinction rather t...
You're absolutely welcome to adopt that worldview and plenty of people have. The oppressor/oppressed worldview is, in fact, a compelling narrative bec...
Oh thanks I didn't know that. It's interesting to me that you say "class struggles" here as opposed to just "class background" or something like that....
Are you asking me or Marx? If I'm trying to put in a good defense for Marx here I'd say the arrival of homo sapiens, which have always lived in commun...
That's interesting, what exactly is meant by "off shore?" Do they just mean "soft power?" Do you consider the new realists and the old ones to be on e...
I believe Marxism does have teleological underpinnings, taking after Hegel who is definitely teleological. Marx basically flipped Hegelism on its head...
There was still an economy at those times, there has always been economy. Marx definitely doesn't believe in any permanent, immutable human nature. I'...
I wasn't doing that. I was saying that according to Marx "human nature" is essentially just the product of the economic system. In evaluating a societ...
Well are you a woman or disabled? If not then of course you wouldn't see these things as important as class, but for those who face those issues daily...
By "access to debt" do you mean, primarily, traders and investors using leverage? So borrowing funds to invest or speculate. Certainly that can magnif...
I think everyone should agree that loose lending practices encourage speculative bubbles, and that was certainly one of the causes behind the 2008 cra...
I think we need to be careful not to conflate American exceptionalism with political realism. American exceptionalism is often idealistic, Wilsonian -...
I've never understood why we need to see the history of all hitherto existing society as a history of class struggle. By all means, you're free to put...
Well thanks for the new word. The reason I'm lukewarm towards loyalty is because loyalty is always towards some cause or some group, but what of the g...
I was talking more about national security, but I definitely agree with you when you mention the split between social darwinists and those who believe...
Personally, my feelings towards loyalty are lukewarm and I care next to nothing about economic equality. I value harm reduction less than many other p...
If someone values X trait enormously while someone else values the same trait at essentially zero while the two might have the "same" moral value in a...
Some people do have very different values, others have some shared. It's a mix. I'm certainly not saying that all Democrats and all Republicans share ...
You describe the term like it's propaganda or something, but I find it helpful and interesting to know where people are coming from politically/ideolo...
I only mention the 'left' because of their ideas. I'm not talking about them as people. I notice ideas or philosophies that are different, which makes...
Streetlight, I don't know who you are or what you are. All I know about you is what you say. My entire idea of you is based on what you say. I'm here ...
Ok, by identifying different ideologies and watching them argue and favoring one side over the other I was playing idpol. I admit my guilt. I was root...
I'm not playing idpol here. My idpol is mild at best, if you want serious idpol look to who you were arguing with earlier. It's one thing to discuss i...
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